Former Vogue Australia editor, Kirstie Clements, spoke Apr. 3 to Entertainment Tonight about her new book, The Vogue Factor, which details her experiences behind the curtain of the fashion industry. Relieved of her position last May, Clements has taken it upon herself to reveal the darker side of the industry behind the glitz and glamour, including the pressure on models to remain thin.
During her 25 years at Vogue, she saw enough models suffering from eating disorders to compel her to address them as a central issue in her book. Clements stated: "It's not every model, but there are certainly parts of the industry where you will see that girls have got eating disorders. They're normally required to lose a great deal of weight to actually get into those sample sizes that you'll see on those international runways, and that's where you start to see trouble happening."
With the pressure to fit into these 'sample sizes,' which are usually ordered so small to save on fabric costs, many models resort to unhealthy and drastic means of losing weight. Runway models especially were in danger because they were expected to be substantially thinner than the models who appeared in magazines. She even heard of some models eating tissues in order to give them the feeling of fullness without consuming calories. Many of those models got so ill that they had to be hospitalized and put on IVs.
Clements did experience some guilt working in an industry that daily encouraged people to be unhealthy in order to keep their jobs. She even admitted: "I did consider myself to be part of the problem, to tell you the truth. I felt that that everybody was complicit in it. ... As an editor, as a woman, as a mother, I would make my judgment calls as the models passed me...as to whether I felt that they were too thin...and you had to make that call every single day, but yes, the industry is complicit in some of these areas, definitely."
Whether Clements' behind-the-scenes portrayal of the fashion industry will change any of these practices remains to be seen. However, the more the truth spreads opens up the possibility of individuals who want to change the status quo to see this and foment a revolution in fashion that encourages health rather than size.
Comments